Friday Aug 29 2008
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The crowd have had first blood. Now they’re restless. With Stan O’Neal’s head now in the credit crunch basket, there are growing murmurs that other illustrious types tried and found wanting in the summer turmoil should not escape unscathed.

“What about these guys?” asks David Gaffen at MarketBeat - taking a look at the relative merits, or more accurately the de-merits, of the chief executives of Citigroup and Bear Stearns. Here is the City, meanwhile, is running its own CEO Sack Race to collect opinions on the rapid exits at  Merrill and UBS, versus the stubborn sticking power being showcased at other institutions.

The Wall Street Journal seems to have decided whose head it is going after next. It has a hugely long and detailed story laying out the various failings of Bear chief, James Cayne.

It’s a tale of hedge fund disaster and sporting success. Here are the main charges:

• During part of the July crisis, Cayne was playing in a bridge tournament in Nashville, Tenn, without a cellphone or an email device. In one competition though his team placed in the top third
• There was that disappearing act on the August conference call with investors.
• “In summer weeks, he typically left the office on Thursday afternoon and spent Friday at his New Jersey golf club, out of touch for stretches, according to associates and golf records.”
• “In the critical month of July, he spent 10 of the 21 workdays out of the office, either at the bridge event or golfing, according to golf, bridge and hotel records.”
• “Attendees say Mr Cayne has sometimes smoked marijuana at the end of the day during bridge tournaments.”

Yes, you read that correctly. The WSJ is accusing the Wall St heavyweight of being a pothead. Mr Cayne denied a specific instance cited by the Journal, where he is said to have invited a fellow player and a woman to smoke pot with him, in Memphis, in 2004.”Asked if more generally if he smoked pot, Mr Cayne said he would respond only ‘to a specific allegation,’ not to general questions,” the story adds.

The WSJ seems rather relaxed about this. The implication is that if Mr Cayne had been sparking up on Wall Street while elbow deep in hedge fund mess, rather than as part of bridge-related R&R then all would have been fine. It’s the hand-off approach they’re bothered about.

And which banking chief is held up as an example of active management? It had to be Goldman’s.

Mr Blankfein canceled plans to spend the last two weeks of August at his beach house, missing a chance to spend time with his sons before they headed to college. Through the summer’s market gyrations, Mr Blankfein frequently visited Goldman mortgage desks.